Big blues at IBM India

Cuts take place worldwide
The restructuring process, which would see as many as 15,000 jobs being cut globally, including India, Brazil, and the European region.

"The estimate of jobs cut globally is 15,000," international coordinator at the Alliance@IBM (official IBM employees union) Lee Conrad told an Indian news agency, PTI.

Similar cuts are happening in Brazil, according to WRAL Techwire which reported that an IBMer reached out directly to the website after reading reports about layoffs in India.

The same thing is happening in Brazil and the story needs to be told, the worker said.

"So far the numbers are close to 450 this time," the worker who asked not to be identified said. Major cuts also were made in Brazil last year as part of a work force reduction.

Alliance@IBM, which is seeking to unionize North American workers, said Thursday afternoon that some 1,500 layoffs are expected in Brazil.

Lee Conrad, who heads up Alliance@IBM and is a retired IBM worker, had predicted earlier this week that layoffs would start in Europe as soon as the company, unions and governments were able to strike agreements. Unlike the U.S., he said, many EU countries are very strict when allowing corporate cuts.

On the Alliance@IBM website Thursday, posts noted possible layoffs in the works in Australia and Germany,

The tech website stated that the latest "rebalancing" of Big Blue is heading west, with the first reports of job losses in the U.S. coming from New York. There, a "few"contractors have been "walked out."

Speculation has been that layoffs in the U.S. would begin either Feb. 19 or Feb. 26.

"Reports from Europe and South America are also coming in. In Europe, due to union contracts, the targeted cuts must be negotiated," Alliance noted in an update. "Some cuts will be voluntary."

The layoff count as off Thursday evening as compiled by the Alliancebased on reports from workers and affiliated unions in Europe:

Belgium, 105

Argentina, 600

Brazil, 1500

Netherlands, 240

Norway, 35

France, 480

Italy, 430

Interestingly, the reductions in Italy include 60 workers who sources there say are "being moved out to Lenovo."

Lenovo is in the process of buying IBM's x86 server business, which is part of the STG group. About 2,000 IBMers in Research Triangle Park are expected to be transferred to Lenovo, which operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville. The total is around 7,500 worldwide.

If IBM cuts follow a similar plan as implemented in 2013, some 13,000 layoffs across its workforce of more than 434,000 are expected. That 2013 plan led to hundreds of layoffs in North Carolina and about 3,500 across North America, based on documents and sources. IBM still employs about 9,500 people across North Carolina.

Lay-offs could be done sensibly
Globally, other tech firms like Intel and Texas Instruments are reported to be laying off 5,000 and 1, 100 employees respectively.

Even in India, there is speculation that iconic IT firms may well lay off up to 2,500 staff each during the January-March quarter.

“Sacking, though a tough choice should be done when needed but sensibly and not in such a inhuman manner. We know that companies have to do it, across the world and even in the US, there were so many lay-offs during recession.,” says an IBMer on condition of anonymity.

“Hundreds of us have left our cities and made Bangalore our home because we were employed by IBM here. IBM was such a well-reputed company and we were so proud to work here. There are several premises where IBM operates in and each has become a landmark in the city. Tell an auto rickshaw driver that some address is near the IBM building in say, Bannerghata or Hebbal, he takes us unerringly to the correct address. Our parents are also so shocked at this turn of events” said another young IBMer, who came from Kolkatta.

Real estate business has been booming because of the IT population in Bangalore where many of them have bought apartments on housing loans. “ Banks would immediately sanction loans when we say we work for IBM. Now, the question is how are we going to pay the monthly installments without a job?” laments another IBMer who used to for work with the STG group.

In India, Bangalore is a key centre for IBM with major office blocks in Manyata Embassy Business Park in Hebbal and Embassy Golf Links near Domlur and Bannerghata which are sprawling campuses employing thousands of engineers.

IBM’s response
When contacted by PTI, an IBM India spokesperson said, "As reported in our recent earnings briefing, IBM continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients and to pioneer new, high value segments of the IT industry."

"To that end, IBM is positioning itself to lead in areas such as Cloud, Analytics and Cognitive Computing and investing in these priority areas. For example, we have recently committed $1 billion to our new Watson unit and $1.2 billion to expand our Cloud footprint around the world," the spokesperson further said.

Can someone from China, Taiwan and Korea pitch in with their opinions about their countries ? Would be an interesting perspective.

Agreed. It would be interesting to hear from someone in China, Taiwan, Korea. I hope someone chimes in from those countries.

Well said. (That's good career advice: get a patent.) Ha! It's nice to hear I live in a socialist paradise. :-) I can feel half the audience cringing.

Because India is a democracy, is there any movement in India like the progressive movement in the early 20th Century in the US to get some worker protections in place via legislation? As you know, we had companies lobbying against labor protections here in US back then...and still do. It's a constant battle.

Thank you, GSMD for interesting comments about India. The US safety net isn't enough to keep anyone above the poverty line. Workers definitely need savings. Also in US, once you get to a certain age and you're laid off, it's very hard to find work again. Eventually you'll work your way through the safety net, such as unemployment insurance. US workers didn't always have a safety net from the government. Are Indians considering any kind of worker protections or safety net legistlation?

It is very sad to see layoff for anyone. The world economy is not so good, so it is hard to find jobs in any country. The article states that IBM has 130,000 workers in India and will layoff 2,000. That's only 1.5%, so not as bad as what I usually see in the US. I can understand that it hits harder since this is not the normal happening in India.

@Junko: I see this as begining of a trend. More multinationals are expected to follow similar path. May be they are calculating with new formulas. Delay in new product development - and lost market. Development of not so good or half good product - loosing good part of faithful customers. And accountants are smart to add all hidden cost cents and dollars to expenses developing abroad and highlighting actual development cost to be much higher.

People in north america work pretty hard and are smart. Everyone need to compete in real world. It is survival of fittest.

I'm gathering there are some engineers in US (and perhaps Europe) that may feel threatened by the outsourcing that has occured over the last couple of decades. So many hear (my self included) that you can get 10 engineers in China or India for the cost of one here in the US, stuff like that makes US engineers (pune intended) feel threathened, and of course feelings come into play. Hence some of the stinging comments on this article.

Long ago I reconciled my own misplaced feelings in this area, no matter what the outcome, I can only encourage people of any location or nationality to take up engineering. It has served me well over the last quarter of century. And my father and his father. And, most importantly, I've just enjoyed the shear technical challenges and would be glad to see any one experiance the same joy.

And, yes, no matter how a layoff is handled, it hurts and I emphathise with that.

But I'd loath to hear when the company management says layoffs are not personal. I find that "amoral."

Every layoff is "personal" to you, because your life is dependent on the job. While some of the reactions reported in this article seems a bit over the top, I think those laid off have every right to be outraged and get emotional about it.

@Junko: There are two sides of every coin. When you enjoy one part of western work culture you ougth to eventually face other side of this work culture - abrupt layoff. I do not see anything ominous. I take it as integral part of life, similar to health. It can happen to me or anyone else. What I rather suggest is to make this part of training so people do not get that upset.

On another note, Indians are very much versed with this phenomena. I take this type of news as shocking surprise is amoral.

And, on the lighter side, back in those days (approx. 1994) there was always a news story about a mysterious character appearing on one or more of the IBM campuses. that drew local news coverage .He wore a SuperMan costume and generally tried to create bad press!

But, the "S" on his outfit was not for SuperMan, it was for "Surplus" man :-)Geeze, I can laugh about it these days, wasn't funny back then...Have lots of stories like this, one day (the old cliche) - "I should write a book" applies :-)

Worked with a guy at Intel, he told me he accepted a job in Oregon (some Japanese tech company I seemed to recall). Picked up, drove his kids, dog, wife all the way from NE to Oregon. Arrived at work on Monday only to be told his manager and manager's team were let go the Friday before (i.e., he no longer had a job).

See; take solace in that when you have it bad, someone else is getting shafted even more ;-} And, yes, we have become jaded :-(

What was inhumane? Oh, the drama of it all! A "bloodbath"? "Turned into a slaughterhouse"??! So there were people being clubbed to death or chopped with machetes? Was the meat sold on the market? Or is this just terrible journalism? Maybe they were quotes, so just a bad journalist (blogger) that didn't ignor the inaccurate descriptions while looking for headlines rather than sane truth.

I'm sure IBM policy for lay-offs is very rational. One would hope the local management handled things professionally. Nothing I see in the writing indicates anything embarrasing, humiliating, or inhumane. Gee, they made you give back the company computers? You thought they should have let you keep them?

This handwriting was on the wall (IBM has been suffering for a while now) and their execs have indicated that "rebalancing" was coming. There never has been a promise of lifetime employment anywhere. If these disgruntled employees had found another job and were leaving IBM, would they have given 3 months notice, trained their successor, and still kept the laptop?